Weekly News - February 3, 2022 - Unitarian Universalist Society of Mill Creek

Posted on February 3, 2022 Posted By: Office Administrator Categories: News

Unitarian Universalist Society of Mill Creek
We are a community that invites you to awaken to love.

** Sunday Worship Service:
February 6, 2022
10:00 am – Livestream
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Join us as Rev. Dave Hunter shares his sermon…

Evangelism is sharing the good news. Pre-evangelism is sharing the good news (Unitarian Universalism) without having to explain what the good news is.

Rev. Dave Hunter and his wife, the Rev. Kerry Mueller, are officially retired Unitarian Universalist ministers, now serving as co-consulting ministers for the UU Fellowship of Pottstown. Dave is a graduate of Princeton University, the Harvard Law School, and Wesley Theological Seminary; he was an attorney at the Department of Justice, in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division, from 1975 to 2000. He was last in our pulpit in December 2017.

Sunday’s Music Performance:
The Mill Creek Choir performs for us again, under the direction of Rachel Sabella. Katie August returns as accompanist.
Connect With Us Virtually
There are several ways to get the Zoom link for livestreaming the service:
* Click the link below (Sunday Livestream) and bookmark it; OR
* Access the church calendar (https://www.uusmc.org/news/calendar/) (https://www.uusmc.org/news/calendar/); OR
* Open our Sunday morning email; OR
* Open ANY PREVIOUS Sunday morning email – the link remains the same from week to week

Click here for Sunday LIVESTREAM (https://zoom.us/j/97806427419)

** Congregational Life
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** Upcoming events, meetings and news to know
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UPCOMING LIVESTREAM-ONLY SERVICES

February 6 – Rev. Dave Hunter (UU Fellowship of Pottstown, PA)
February 13 – Heather Petit
February 20 – Heather Petit

** Share Our Plate:
January & February
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We regularly donate a portion of our undesignated plate collection to a local charity or non-profit organization.

For the months of January and February we have selected:
YoungMoms in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania

The mission of YoungMoms is to inspire and equip young mothers to build thriving futures for themselves and their families. This non-profit organization, serving southern Chester County, Pennsylvania, provides the academic, employment, parenting and relational support pregnant and parenting young mothers need to achieve their life goals and improve their lives and those of their children.

The individuals they serve face huge challenges as they navigate adolescence and parenthood simultaneously, including incomplete education, poverty, language barriers, isolation, and a general lack of options and opportunities. YoungMoms offers a program of individualized, comprehensive, and long-term support to these young women, featuring:
* Highly specialized case management
* One-to-one mentoring
* Educational & employment assistance
* Parenting education & development
* Monthly club meetings, life skills training, and enrichment workshops in Kennett Square and Oxford

Participants remain in the program between two and four years, allowing the YoungMoms program to assist them in overcoming obstacles which might normally derail their progress in achieving goals. This long-term investment makes YoungMoms unique and life changing.
For more information about this organization, click on the link below:
LEARN MORE about YoungMoms (https://youngmomschestercounty.org/)
Support this organization with your online donation today!
DONATE to Share Our Plate (https://onrealm.org/MillCreek/-/give/now)
**Be sure to select ‘Share Our Plate’ as the giving fund**

** Complicated Grief
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Part of a series
shared by Rev. Bob Broesler

The Unique Spirituality of Retirement Years

In my experience working directly and intensively with people who have lost a life-long spouse, I have been struck by the myriad of spiritual journeys people have shared. This has drawn me into reflection about the unique role and dimensions of spirituality for those of us experiencing the last quarter of our lives. Many of us (I am 66) can expect to live well into our eighties and even nineties. Some of the greatest spiritual thinkers have recognized that this is a unique time of spiritual formation.

For many, lifelong personal religious faith is sufficient to meet spiritual needs and certainly must be acknowledged as an important dimension of late life spirituality. Many other older adults, however, are moving away from organized religion and participating in a consciousness discipline and with various techniques and practices such as meditation and yoga. This consciousness-based spirituality includes but can also goes beyond institutional religion, supporting Brown’s (1980) contention that ‘‘The basic purpose of religion is to help a person to look beyond self, to have some view, experience, or realization of transcendence’’ (p. 77), which is beyond all reasoned concepts. However, religion is failing many of its followers in this basic purpose. Jung cautioned that one must go beyond the words and images to the experience, otherwise ‘‘religion may be a defense against the experience of God’’ (Campbell, 1988, p. 209).
Contact Rev. Bob by email here (mailto:rjbroesler@gmail.com)

** Upcoming Book Group Selections
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Everyone is welcome to join the Book Group for the following discussions:

MARCH:
Glass Hotel
by Emily St. John Mandel
Tuesday, March 1st at 7 pm

MAY:
Radium Girls
by Kate Moore
Tuesday, May 3rd at 7 pm
Zoom links remain the same for each discussion and can be found on the church calendar (https://www.uusmc.org/news/calendar/) . Contact the church office with any questions.

**
Chalice
Circle
Openings
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Chalice Circles at Mill Creek are small groups within our church that provide a supportive environment for people to meet and discuss topics relevant to our lives as well as share our stories, our experiences and our ideas. Circles are an opportunity to get to know each other on a deeper level and develop a rich spirituality. During COVID, some Circles meet virtually, some in person; some meet during the day and some in the evenings.

There are several opportunities to join a circle!
Click the link below to contact Helen Springer for more information, including dates & times of available circles,
or call 484-732-8641; or call the church office, 302-369-2712.
Click here for more information about Chalice Circles (mailto:helen_springer@msn.com?subject=chalice%20circles)

Realm is our church management software program. We use it exclusively for accounting, pledge data, membership, registration events, and more. Use the button below to access your Realm profile to make sure we have your most recent contact information, and make pledge payments and contributions.
Access your Realm profile HERE (https://onrealm.org/MillCreek/SignIn)
Fun fact: you can use Realm to set up recurring online monthly pledge payments using a credit card or your checking or savings account!

We encourage you to continue your financial support of Mill Creek during the closure by using one of the following methods:

1. Mail a check: 579 Polly Drummond Hill Road, Newark DE 19711 (staff is present in the office and the mailbox is checked daily). Please indicate on the subject line if this is a pledge payment, a general contribution, or a contribution to a specific giving fund.
2. Give electronically through REALM using your credit card or bank account (checking, savings, etc.): https://onrealm.org/MillCreek/Give or use the link below (remember to select a giving fund).
3. Text-to-Give: text MillCreek and the amount [e.g. MillCreek 50] to 73256.

We sincerely appreciate your support of Mill Creek, especially now during an uncertain time for us all. But, the work of the church continues! We gratefully acknowledge that there would be no Mill Creek without YOU. Thank you.
**Click here to GIVE NOW** (https://onrealm.org/MillCreek/-/give/now)

@millcreekuu

Mill Creek Staff

Rev. Gregory S. Pelley, Minister
Rev. Greg is away on sabbatical now through June 30.
He will not be available by phone or email throughout the duration of his absence. We offer assurance that all church operations will continue as usual, and have prepared a guide which contains a list of guest speakers, contact information for those in leadership positions, and other information. Use the link below to access the guide.
Sabbatical Guide – view it here (https://www.uusmc.org/wp-content/uploads/A-Guide-to-Rev-Gregs-Sabbatical.pdf)
Debra Damiani, Congregational Administrator
Monday 8 am to 1 pm, Monday-Thursday
administrator@uusmc.org (mailto:administrator@uusmc.org)
302-369-2712

Rachel Sabella, Music Director
Hours by Appointment
music@uusmc.org (mailto:music@uusmc.org)
302-369-2712

** Events in Our Local Community
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** Newark Parks & Rec’s Winter/Spring Activity Guide Now Available
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Who says it’s too early to think about spring?!?? The good folks at Newark Parks & Recreation have compiled their bi-annual guide full of longstanding activities and events. Check it out using the link below.

Did you know…Newark Parks & Rec has 37 parks and open space areas for all to enjoy, which encompasses over 650 acres and 17 miles of trails!
View the Activity Guide HERE (https://newarkde.gov/DocumentCenter/View/15472/2022-Winter-Spring)

** News from the UUA, the Central East Region, and the Delmarva Cluster
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Exploring Class. Addressing Classism.

** UU Class Conversations Newsletter
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New Year’s Edition 2022
Now Available

UU Class Conversations: Educating Unitarian Universalists about class awareness and inclusion – empowering our religious movement to dismantle classism within our congregations and communities.

In this edition of the newsletter:
* Children’s Corner: book ideas
* Blog Post: Microaggressions
* Myths & Facts
* And More

RREAD the Newsletter here (https://mailchi.mp/e3e24912b0b2/oct-7623305?e=685e428753)
LEARN MORE about UU Class Conversations here (https://www.uuclassconversations.org/)

https://www.uua.org/central-east

**
Opportunities for Connection: Central East Region Update
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FEBRUARY 2022
Opportunities for Connection – click here to learn more (https://www.uua.org/central-east/blog/opportunities-222)

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Weekly News – February 3, 2022

Weekly News – February 3, 2022